A Meeting of Old Friends
by chocoluvr
Summary: When seasoned reporter Rose Wilkins travels to England to cover the Death Eater trials, she runs into her old friend Xenophilius Lovegood. When the news story of the year breaks out her relationship with Xenophilius is tested.


**Disclaimer**: I don't own Harry Potter.

* * *

Rose wasn't too surprised when she was summoned to her editor's office at the _New York Daily Prophet_'s office since the war in England had ended and the war trials of the accused Death Eaters were scheduled to begin in a couple of weeks. Rose knew that she was one of the best reporters that the paper had though she was restless spending this past year in Washington reporting political news when she wanted to be in England where the excitement was. She became a reporter for her love of adventure and since she had never married nor had children it was easy for her to pick up and follow the stories around the world. She also had another reason to want to go to England, since her niece had just accepted a position at the American Consulate there right after graduating from Salem Witches Academy, and this new assignment will bring her closer to her niece since they both will be in London. She knew that her sister would be glad that Rose was taking an assignment in London so that she could watch out for her daughter, Audrey. That was convenient to Rose, since she could stay with her niece for the duration of the trials without having to deal with leasing an apartment close by and the possibility of breaking the lease if the trials went on for less than a year. Covering the Death Eater trials across the pond was probably going to me more interesting than covering the American political scene that she had been covering for the past two years. She had ached to go back into the field covering wars, but her editors had felt that she would be better off reporting about American wizarding politics. This was one of the advantages of being unmarried and childless since she could pick up at a short moment's notice and travel anywhere around the world. When she was a war correspondent she did meet a married British war correspondent who was rarely around his wife and child who had retired seven years ago after his wife's death. Though there were times that he did report the truth in his little paper that he founded after his wife's death which allowed him to spend some more time with his daughter, the second love of his life behind his late wife of course. She did hear though that he did come out of retirement for a while this past year and started to write the type of investigative stories that he used to be known for before his wife's death. She went ahead to let her sister know about her new assignment and that she would probably be in England for a while besides she had to make arrangements to sublet her apartment which is what she did for her long term assignments. Alyssa, her sister wondered why Rose just didn't settle down and get married, though at her age most of the available men that she would be interested in were either taken or gay. Besides she loved the freedom of being able to travel at short notice for her work with the paper, like now going to England where she would have a chance to see a country rebuilt after a violent civil war. Though there were times that she would like to settle down and get married but she knew how hard her profession was on family life. She was excited though about this new assignment since she felt that covering the Death Eater trials in London will help her to bring the truth of their crimes to the public plus some of the defendants would probably be a part of some prominent American families though those with money and power would be able to somehow wiggle themselves out of trouble like they did the last time. Besides she will probably see her old friend and rival, "Crazy" Xeno Lovegood. Though it had been almost eight years since she had seen or heard from him but she knew that he was alive from his magazine articles that she had read this past year. She was impressed at the news stories that he had written this past year though she wondered if he would make this move back to the hard hitting news stories permanent or if it was only for this past year. She was glad to see her old rival returning to the real news instead of those fluff pieces that he had been writing. She did know about the rumors that someone had hired an experienced hit wizard to kill his wife and to make it look like an accident over a story that he had published in the first ever edition of _The Quibbler. _Rose quickly made arrangements to rent a flat in London which was large enough for both her and Audrey to live in while they were in England. She felt that it would be safer and cheaper for the two of them if they were to live together.

* * *

Xenophilius Lovegood was not looking forward to the upcoming Death Eater trials even though he had planned on covering them for the _Quibbler_ since he wanted his readers to get the full story of the trials not what the Ministry wanted the public to know, since_ The Daily Prophet _was controlled by the Ministry. He knew how bad it was for his Luna after she had been kidnaped but he didn't feel ready to hear about her ordeal when she testified against the people who had held her hostage. He had wanted to take her away to some far away country after he was released from Azkaban in order to help her to deal with the ordeal but he had to stay to cover the trials for the Quibbler and she had to stay in order to testify against those who had held her captive for the past few months. Besides he had to be here in order to rebuild his house since it was damaged beyond repair though Luna was able to convince her friend Neville to let them stay with him and his Gran until their house can be rebuilt. Xeno though felt that Augusta was disappointed in him about an article that he had written eight years ago and had never really followed up on the story. He felt that he only let him and Luna stay with them because of Neville's and Luna's friendship though she trusted them not to do anything that she wouldn't do. She was nervous about the upcoming trials too since this would probaly be the first time that she would hear the full truth about what went on at Hogwarts during this past year. Xeno had heard rumors that they also had photographs from a sixteen year old boy to be used as evidence in the trials and that a pensive would be used for those witnesses who had provided their memories before they died. He regretted that he couldn't protect his little girl from the Death Eaters who had taken her or that they couldn't go away somewhere just the two of them to help her to recover from her ordeal like he did after her mother's death.


End file.
